This invention relates to an impact resistant composite structure that is light in weight, thin in its thickness dimension, and capable of stopping a high speed armor piercing type bullet.
In recent years there has been great interest in developing a light weight and relatively thin composite structure that can stop an armor piercing-type bullet. In U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,509,833 and 3,516,898, which both issued to R. L. Cook, there is disclosed a composite structure which was developed for this purpose. In both of the Cook patents the use of ceramic facings is used to blunt and shatter the oncoming bullet.
It is further disclosed in the Cook patents that the ceramic layer tends to fracture in an expanding conical shape from the point of impact of the bullet. In U.S. Pat. No. 3,509,833, it is suggested that this shattering can be somewhat localized by using a plurality of spaced tiles rather than a continuous tile layer.
In developing this invention, it was found that the use of small spaced tiles in the manner disclosed by the Cook patents did not satisfactorily cure the shattering of adjacent non-contacted tiles, which is caused by a bullet's lateral shock wave. As a consequence, subsequent rounds of bullets, when fired into the general area, would pass through the sample. This invention greatly reduces the lateral shock wave impact of a bullet on non-contacted tiles by isolating each tile in a shock absorbing manner.